--- title: Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever description: This post is in partnership with Fortune, which offers the latest business and finance news. Read the article below originally published at Fortune.com. If U.S.... canonical: https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/ author: Philip Elmer-DeWitt article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-18T15:23:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:45:50.352Z article:section: World og:title: Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever og:description: This post is in partnership with Fortune, which offers the latest business and finance news. Read the article below originally published at Fortune.com. If U.S.... og:url: https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f93b6863e02efbb/698695c035ba6f8a5bc02607/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook addresses the crowd during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever twitter:description: This post is in partnership with Fortune, which offers the latest business and finance news. Read the article below originally published at Fortune.com. If U.S.... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f93b6863e02efbb/698695c035ba6f8a5bc02607/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever by [Philip Elmer-DeWitt](/author/philip-elmer-dewitt/) ## Philip Elmer-DeWitt Jun 18, 2014 3:23 PM CUT  Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook addresses the crowd during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco, California June 10, 2013\. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTX10IYJ Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook addresses the crowd during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco, California June 10, 2013\. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTX10IYJStephen Lam—Reuters by [Philip Elmer-DeWitt](/author/philip-elmer-dewitt/) ## Philip Elmer-DeWitt Jun 18, 2014 3:23 PM CUT  This post is in partnership with Fortune, which offers the latest business and finance news. Read the article below originally published at [Fortune.com](http://fortune.com/careers/apple-hits-amazon-with-a-well-timed-zinger/ "undefined"). If U.S. District Judge Denise Cote needed a reminder that she backed the bully in the 2013 e-book antitrust ruling that made her infamous on the Internet, Apple and Hachette on Tuesday engineered a doozy. On Monday, Judge Cote received from Apple and 30 states attorneys general the terms of the deal they’ve cut – presumably a dollar amount in millions — to settle the separate civil case that rode like a room full of expensive suits on Cote’s decision. Apple has promised to take its appeal to the Supreme Court, if necessary. (See [The big ‘if’ in Apple’s e-book settlement](http://fortune.com/2014/06/17/the-big-if-in-apples-e-book-settlement/ "undefined").) A few hours after the deal was made public, a reporter with good connections with Apple PR posted a screen shot of Hachette titles being discounted on Apple’s iTunes bookstore. “Apple is happy,” Peter Kafka wrote on [Re/Code](http://recode.net/2014/06/17/apple-is-happy-to-sell-you-the-hachette-books-amazon-wont-stock "undefined"), in a widely retweeted headline, “to sell you the Hachette books Amazon won’t stock.” [For the rest of the story, go to Fortune.com](http://fortune.com/2014/06/18/apple-hits-amazon-with-a-well-timed-zinger/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/"},"headline":"Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever","datePublished":"2014-06-18T15:23:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:45:50.352Z","description":"This post is in partnership with Fortune, which offers the latest business and finance news. Read the article below originally published at Fortune.com. If U.S....","url":"https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/","keywords":["Apple","Tech","Amazon","e-books","hachette"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f93b6863e02efbb/698695c035ba6f8a5bc02607/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elmer-DeWitt","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elmer-dewitt/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f93b6863e02efbb/698695c035ba6f8a5bc02607/apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook addresses the crowd during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco","caption":"Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook addresses the crowd during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 in San Francisco","creditText":"Stephen Lam—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/apple/","name":"Apple"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2894743/apple-amazon-fued/","name":"Apple Slammed Amazon in the Most Covert Way Ever"}}]}] ```